Goodman Fielder dismisses claim they are under pressure on banking covenants

Goodman Fielder’s Managing Director, Mr Peter Margin, has refuted many of the assertions made in an Australian Financial Review article published today.

The company reported they were comfortable with their level of debt and not expecting significant write-downs as a result of the strategic review that is currently taking place.

“We remain comfortably within our banking covenants and in the last 12 months we have successfully refinanced debt of $770 million,” he advised. “We have a conservatively geared balance sheet and we are very comfortable with a debt to (debt+equity) of 31% and an interest cover of more than four times.”

“Any suggestion that we are under pressure on our covenants is just plain wrong,” Mr Margin advised. “Our strategic review is well advanced and we are not anticipating any significant write downs as a result of this process.”

“When we reach a conclusion at the end of the strategic review, we will announce it to the market.”